MISAMIS ORIENTAL-- A strong tornado on Monday morning crushed 19 houses in Initao, a coastal town west of Misamis Oriental, injuring two persons and displaced 73 individuals. Provincial Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano quickly dispatched a team from the Provincial Disaster Risk, Reduction Management Council (PRRMC) to attend to the injured and the displaced families. Francisco Dy, the PDRRMC officer-in-charge, identified the injured as Helen Libanco and her son Gilbert, 13. He said that Libanco is now undergoing treatment in the provincial hospital for head injuries when hit by a flying tree branch while Gilbert also complained of backache. Dy said that the tornado damaged 19 houses affecting 73 individuals. “The displaced families are now evacuated while the repair of the damaged houses underway,” he said. Dy said that the tornado also damaged crops. “We are now conducting an assessment of the extent of the damaged to the agricultural crops,” Dy said. Tornadoes are caused by extremely large thunderstorms that form into a funnel of the turbulent column of air, which can be very destructive in nature with their speed ranging from 110mph to 300mph and can last to about 1-2 hours or 4 hours. There are various types of tornado that include the Multiple Vortex, waterspout, landspout and the Devil-dust Tornado. The landspout type of tornado could have struck the coastal town of Initao Monday. pna